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Episode 404: Tailor Patient Treatment Education for Non-Oncology Indications

Release Date: 02/27/2026

Episode 424: Radiation Site-Specific Side Effects: Cancers of the Pelvis

The ONS Podcast

“Think about what organs lie in the radiation field, and anything that lies in that radiation field is likely going to have some potential temporary—hopefully temporary—side effects. If you think about the pelvis, the things that live in there are the bladder, urethra, some bowel, rectum, reproductive organs, skin, some lymph nodes. And so, all of those things could potentially have associated side effects,” ONS member Kayla Kafka-Peterson, BSN, RN, ROCN™, nurse navigator and leader in the brachytherapy and peri-anesthesia programs at UCLA Health, in Los Angeles, CA, told Lenise...

Episode 423: Pharmacology 101: Interaction Pathways

The ONS Podcast

“When we think of drug interactions, specifically, the National Cancer Institute actually defines this as a change in the way a drug acts in the body when taken with certain other drugs, herbals, or foods or when taken with certain medical conditions. Drug interactions may cause the drug to either be more or less effective or cause effects on the body that are not expected,” Carissa Ganihong, PharmD, BCOP, oncology and bone marrow transplantation clinical pharmacist at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology...

Episode 422: An Overview of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia for Oncology Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“What I appreciate about our patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic leukemia is the consideration that they receive a cancer diagnosis, and the best thing for them to do is actually nothing. There is a large population of patients that we don’t recommend any type of treatment. We recommend that they establish care with an oncologist and that they have a relationship with those care teams,” ONS member Caitilin Murphy, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, chief nurse practitioner at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®,...

Episode 421: Medical Trauma in Oncology

The ONS Podcast

“There are a huge array of medical dynamics that people endure, and when they leave a lasting impact, a word that we don’t use widely enough is the word ‘trauma.’ There’s an entire category of phenomena in the medical arena that are, in fact, traumatic. One way we know that these experiences are traumatic is that we know that huge portions of people who experience things like cancer do indeed develop problems like [post-traumatic stress disorder],” James C. Jackson, PsyD, research professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN,...

Episode 420: Long-Term Myelodysplastic Syndrome Considerations for Oncology Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“We typically think of the disease progressing for our higher-risk patients because many of them already start with increased blasts or a lot of dysplasia. And they have these chromosomal variants that make them prone to evolving into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). With them, we can anticipate that they are going to progress to AML. And that’s what we’re trying to prevent. It’s kind of like a biologic evolution and not a switch,” ONS member Sara Tinsley-Vance, PhD, APRN, AOCN®, nurse practitioner and quality-of-life researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, told Lenise...

Episode 419: Pharmacology 101: Immunomodulators

The ONS Podcast

“Until immunomodulators, patients [with myeloma] did not have a great overall survival rate. But when we introduced lenalidomide, we started seeing our patients have life expectancies between five and seven years—which was unheard of prior to these immunomodulators going forward. I think it’s promising and allows patients to have quality of life versus therapy of life,” ONS member Daniel Verina, DNP, RN, ACNP-BC, nurse practitioner for the multiple myeloma program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, NY, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, TCTCN™, oncology clinical specialist...

Episode 418: Radiation Site-Specific Side Effects: Colorectal Cancer

The ONS Podcast

“Radiation therapy is often extremely well tolerated in colorectal cancer. Technology has really changed things. But location of the tumor can affect side effects, such as radiation dermatitis. If a patient has a low-lying tumor, if it’s less than six centimeters from the anal verge, the patient is likely to have some skin reaction. It’s good to be proactive if that’s the case,” ONS member Lorraine Drapek, DNP, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, nurse practitioner in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®,...

Episode 417: Pharmacology 101: Oncolytic Viral Therapy

The ONS Podcast

“There are a lot of specifics that nurses need to keep in mind as they are administering this herpes simplex modified virus to patients because accidental exposure is of concern both to the patient, to their family members, as well as to healthcare workers. I always recommend nurses wear personal protective equipment, such as a gown, safety glasses, gloves, and/or a face shield,” Heidi Finnes, PharmD, RPh, BCOP, director of clinical ambulatory practice at Mayo Clinic and assistant professor of pharmacy at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, MN, told Jaime...

Episode 416: Cancer Treatments for Noncancer Indications: Radiation

The ONS Podcast

“When you have benign conditions, we’re actually treating 3 gray, so a significant difference [versus doses of 60 gray for brain cancer]. Typically, when you treat at a high dose, the goal is to destroy tissue, like cancer tissue or cancer cells. But when we give a low dose, the goal is actually to modulate inflammation. And what it does is it slows down those inflammatory cells or those cells that release the chemicals that cause pain and inflammation,” Amanda Meyer, DNP, APRN, CNP, family nurse practitioner in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN,...

Episode 415: Myelodysplastic Syndrome Treatment Considerations for Oncology Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“We want to make sure that we discuss the details of the treatment and what treatments there are, whether it’s an oral drug, whether it’s a subcutaneous injection or an IV injection, [the patient’s] potential for responding, whether this treatment is curative or supportive, and what the number of visits are. All of those different pieces of information that go into the decision-making process are really important,” ONS member Sara Tinsley-Vance, PhD, APRN, AOCN®, nurse practitioner and quality-of-life researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN,...

More Episodes

“We print education sheets that we have, and we say, ‘Just ignore this part that says cancer. You’re getting this med but for a different indication.’ And then you have to really point out what our goals of care are. You’re using the information that, as oncology nurses, we like and love, but we’re having to cross it out and say, ‘Just read this portion and just do this here.’ And that can be challenging for the nurse and probably confusing for the patient,” ONS member Brandy Thornberry, RN, OCN^®, outpatient infusion and VAD supervisor at Logan Health in Kalispell, MT, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS^®, TCTCN™, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about education for patients receiving antineoplastic drugs for non-oncology indications. Taylor also spoke with ONS members Lizzy McMahon, BSN, RN, OCN^®, and Jennifer Lynch, BSN, RN, TCTCN™, about general antineoplastic treatment education and tailoring education in the stem cell transplantation setting.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by February 27, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge of best practices for educating patients receiving antineoplastic therapies across oncology, non‑oncology, and stem cell transplant settings.

Episode Notes

ONS Voice articles:

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

McMahon: “A great question would be to ask the patient what they already know and what they’re most concerned about or what their biggest questions are. This way, the nurse can tailor their education to make sure to focus on what the patient doesn’t know yet and what they’re most concerned about, while still touching on all the required education topics. … It’s also important for nurses to continually be assessing the patient’s readiness to learn throughout the education session, looking for nonverbal cues or verbal signs that the patient is overwhelmed or anxious because this is going to interfere with their ability to take in new information.” TS 3:49

Thornberry: “A lot of the education sheets and the products for them explain it like, ‘This is cancer,’ and more of an oncology perspective, so occasionally [non-oncology patients] can show up and be confused by it. I do feel like they come a little bit less prepared than our oncology patients. Our rheumatologists and neurologists, they sure try, but they just don’t have the support in that realm either. They’re full of every question you can imagine. They’ve never been to an infusion room. They don’t know what to bring. Can they drink water and have their meds beforehand? It’s a full gamut of really preparing them to get these for autoimmune or rheumatology-type issues.” TS 14:12

Lynch: “I really want to spend time with those patients to make sure that we are not assuming that they are coming to us with any knowledge or experience. I want them to be able to come to us with questions and trust their healthcare team and really sit down with them and say, ‘Okay, you don’t have cancer, but we’re using the word chemotherapy where we’re talking about cancer drugs.’… And we’re going to probably spend more time going over some of the basics about blood stem cells, types of cells that they grow into, how your body fights infection, what they’re going to be at risk for. The side effects can be pretty scary when you’re talking about them, especially back to back. So making sure that we are delivering the information that doesn’t put them in a panic mode… A lot of reassurance, as well, and just taking into consideration that, yes, this might have this whole other layer of anxiety to it because of the unknown.” TS 32:22

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